01
When the "champion" of inbound tourism product sales encountered the global epidemic
Under the epidemic, the travel agency industry was severely hit. The nationally renowned listed tourism companies Caesar Travel and Us Travel have both experienced sharp declines and suffered losses in the past two years.
Many small and medium-sized travel agencies have directly chosen to go out of business, "suspend operations" or temporarily change careers. However, Henan CITIC International Travel Service chose to stick to the tourism industry.
"In the past, we mainly engaged in outbound tourism and inbound transportation, and we have been the sales champion of inbound tourism products in Henan Province for five consecutive years." Chen Jing, general manager of Henan CITIC International Travel Service, told Top News·Henan Business Daily reporter.
Such comfortable days were broken by the epidemic, and Chen Jing and his team were forced to "transform." But they did not leave their main business.
"transformed" and became the tellers of local culture, the practitioners of research and education, and the disseminators of Chinese culture.
In order to be more in line with young people's taste for travel, they have launched the City Walk series of city tour products such as Zheng Good Time, Bianjing Story, and Luocheng Story.
"Refuse to memorize tourist information, real locals will tell you about this city." Chen Jing said, our city guide will take you to stroll the old streets, experience Internet celebrity coffee and unlock the city's password.
Targeting the student group, they launched the "Yu Jian National Treasures" series to study in depth the treasures of the nine major museums of the Henan Provincial Museum, attracting a large number of domestic students.
"We have study customers from international schools in Southeast Asia, and every year they organize students to study abroad." Chen Jing said that due to the epidemic, many of the customers they cooperate with cannot come to China, so they innovatively developed a live broadcast of "Reading the Yellow River" Experience courses. The
course has carefully designed experience sessions such as Longmen Grottoes, Shaolin Kung Fu, and paper-cutting art. Through live broadcast, foreign students can learn Shaolin Kungfu from the master through the camera, and experience the artifact of paper-cutting with the inheritor of intangible cultural heritage, and fully experience it.
Although it is difficult for travel agencies to break even in this epidemic environment, it is still very rewarding in Chen Jing’s opinion.
"This gives us an opportunity to reflect after years of rapid growth. What travel agencies ultimately strive for is high-quality products." She said that by designing these products, they have conducted internal sorting and trained their employees' internal skills. At the same time, in the process, the team willing to stay became more united.
02
Advance planning and event support achieve growth in adversity
In recent years, Laojun Mountain’s popularity among Henan landscape scenic spots has gradually increased. Many tourists from inside and outside the province, and even from abroad, come here because of its reputation.
Top News · A reporter from Henan Business Daily learned from Laojun Mountain Scenic Area that under the influence of the epidemic, Laojun Mountain’s overall revenue in 2021 is still growing. In the free ticket promotion for scenic spots across the province organized by the Henan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism (tourists are free of charge, and the government will subsidize 50% of the tickets to the scenic spots), Laojun Mountain received millions in government ticket subsidies.
“The first thing is to make good use of the new marketing track.” Zhou Xiangyi, marketing director of Laojun Mountain Scenic Area, said that at the end of 2019, a Douyin short video of the snow scene of Laojun Mountain attracted the attention of more than 10 million netizens. In the video, Laojun Mountain is clear after the snow. The top of the mountain is covered with white snow, covered with silver, and the mountains are shrouded in mist. It is like a dream, as if you have accidentally stepped into a fairyland. It has received enthusiastic comments from countless netizens, and many people have watched the video. Netizens expressed their longing to visit Laojun Mountain in person.
Later, Laojun Mountain Scenic Area took this opportunity to combine traditional marketing and Internet marketing, and popular events emerged one after another. Zhou Xiangyi introduced that in addition to activities such as the "One Yuan Lunch" and the Cool Summer Festival, they also added a new Hanfu Culture Festival in 2021. They arranged a classical dance show on the summit platform, so that tourists can have an "unexpected" surprise after climbing to the top and enhance their sense of gain. "Tourists spontaneously take photos, check in, and share their unexpected experiences with relatives and friends, which forms word-of-mouth marketing." Zhou Xiangyi said.
Since then, Laojun Mountain has broken the situation of traditional landscape scenic spots with few tourists in winter and "busy in summer and weak in winter". Realize the "no off-season" model throughout the year to escape the heat in the summer and enjoy the snow in the winter.
In addition, another secret of Laojunshan is to arrange sales network connection in advance. "For example, we have now completed return visits to customers from all channels." Zhou Xiangyi told a reporter from Top News·Henan Business Daily that the so-called return visit is to finalize next year's cooperation plan with customers, thus "locking in" next year's customer base in advance.
03
The integration of culture, tourism and culture will become one of the province’s strategic pillar industries
The cultural tourism industry - especially scenic spots and travel agencies, has suffered from the "normalization of the epidemic". In 2021, due to the dual impact of the epidemic and the disaster, a large number of cultural and tourist attractions such as Yinji International Tourism Resort, Henan Drama Fantasy City, Movie Town, Fantawild Tourism Resort, etc. have opened and stopped, and at one point, the scenic spot even had a The reopening of business was announced, but it only took one day before the park had to be closed again.
Can the year 2022 be smoother? If the epidemic continues to recur, how should cultural travelers respond?
Chen Jing said that on the one hand, they will always pay attention to changes in the epidemic, and on the other hand, they will continue to deepen the local culture of Henan and develop more innovative cultural and tourism products that suit the tastes of young people from the treasure house of Central Plains civilization.
This also coincides with the main tone of the future development of cultural tourism in Henan. Top News·Henan Business Daily reporter learned that the Henan Provincial Party Committee proposed to implement the integration strategy of culture, tourism and culture during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, pointing out the direction and finding a path for the high-quality development of cultural tourism in Henan Province. The Henan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism has begun to make plans and promote projects to promote the high-quality integrated development of culture, tourism, and creativity.
Jiang Jiding, Party Secretary and Director of the Henan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, introduced that according to the plan, during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Henan will focus on the two strategic positionings of the Chinese cultural inheritance and innovation center and the world cultural tourist attraction. The provincial tourism industry’s comprehensive revenue will exceed 1 trillion yuan; the tourism industry’s comprehensive contribution will account for more than 12% of GDP; the added value of the cultural industry will account for more than 5% of GDP; culture, tourism, and creativity will become the province’s strategic pillar industry.
Relevant measures that will be implemented during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period include promoting the theme image of "Walking in Henan, Understanding China".
Against this background, the top cultural and creative team of Henan Daily Newspaper Group is also planning a new industrial layout around culture, tourism and culture. The person in charge of the top cultural and creative team said that in 2022 they plan to jointly integrate the province's intangible cultural heritage resources and create a series of activities such as "intangible cultural heritage enters scenic spots, B&Bs, communities, universities, and enterprises". We are planning to hold the first cultural and creative conference in Henan Province, aiming to integrate local and municipal cultural tourism, intangible cultural heritage, beautiful countryside and other resources, and open up the entire cultural and creative industry chain of design, production, promotion, and sales.
In addition, they also plan to use the project system as a starting point, starting from IP, products, channels, operations and other levels, to explore characteristics, technology empowerment, creative out of the circle, to convey the Central Plains culture in a way that young people like, and to help the Central Plains urban culture. The tourism, cultural and creative industries are developing and upgrading.
04
Firm confidence and continuous innovation are the way to break through adversity
"When we communicated with people in the industry, we found that it is often the groups that have confidence in the industry that can find their own way to survive in adversity." Secretary-General of Henan Tourism Association Hua Lei told a reporter from Top News·Henan Business Daily.
In 2022, the cultural tourism industry is likely to continue to face a severe environment, and cultural tourism people will most likely have to endure a difficult cycle, but innovation is still the way to solve problems.
Hualei said that the travel agency and tour guide industries are relatively easier to transform and find breakthroughs.
She said that in addition to the above-mentioned CITIC International Travel Service’s in-depth cultural efforts on products, some travel agencies have found new profit points from non-traditional businesses such as online training.
New opportunities have also emerged in the tour guide field, which is to create IP through online live broadcast and video products.
"During the epidemic, some tour guides in Henan have gathered fan bases through live broadcasts." Hualei said that they have gradually transformed from traditional tour guides to travel planners, providing customized small group services for fans.
In addition, for scenic spots, the gap period can also be used to make up for the shortcomings of cultural and creative products during the epidemic.
"The cultural and creative products in scenic spots in Henan Province are still very weak nationwide, and many scenic spots do not pay attention to the development of this sector. They are used to making quick money from 'tickets + ropeway'." Hualei said frankly.
She believes that in the new year, scenic spots can calm down and dig deeper into the culture of scenic spots and develop more cultural and creative products that can impress consumers. Once a product goes out of the industry, it can bring unexpected explosive sales growth, and at the same time, it can also enhance tourists' awareness of the scenic spot brand.
05
with a total investment of 47.8 billion! In 2022, we will focus on building 10 iconic projects
In the new year, Henan will also invest heavily in the cultural tourism sector.
Henan is a key construction area for the Yellow River National Cultural Park. Top News·Henan Business Daily reporter learned that in the future, the Yellow River National Cultural Park will be used as the "main stage" for the implementation of the brand image of "Walking in Henan and Understanding China" to create the Yellow River National Culture Key construction area of the park.
Jiang Jiding introduced that the spatial layout of "one core, three poles, one corridor and nine belts" has been established ("one core" is the Zheng, Bian, Luo, Dahe Civilization Inheritance and Innovation Core Area, and "three poles" are Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Henan and Hebei There are three cross-provincial linkage development growth poles including Shandong, Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu; the "One Corridor" is the cultural tourism corridor of the main stream of the Yellow River, and the "Nine Belts" are the 9 Yellow River cultural tourism belts including Yiluo River, Guji River-Qinhe River ). Focus on planning 10 centralized display belts, 50 core display parks, and 130 characteristic display points, and concentrate on building high-quality Yellow River cultural tourism products that are concrete, perceptible, and experienceable.
It is worth noting that currently, 11 major projects, including the Han and Wei Luoyang City Ruins Museum and the Yellow River Xuanhe Culture Exhibition Hall, have been included in the national "14th Five-Year Plan" reserve. In 2022, the focus will be on promoting 10 landmark projects such as the Yellow River National Museum, Dahe Village National Archaeological Site Park, and Yin Ruins Museum, with a total investment of 47.8 billion yuan.
06
Create Zheng Bianluo International Cultural Tourism Capital
"For 2022, we will continue to maintain innovative thinking and launch more cultural and tourism products in addition to the original series of activities to enhance customers' consumption experience. Create more for them' Surprise'." Zhou Xiangyi told a reporter from Top News·Henan Business Daily.
Laojun Mountain Scenic Area is located in the ancient capital of Luoyang. In the future, the three ancient capitals of Zhengzhou, Kaifeng and Luoyang will also usher in huge new development opportunities. According to the plan, during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, a product system, a marketing system, and a transportation system will be laid out to build Zheng Bianluo into an internationally influential cultural tourism destination—an international cultural tourism capital.
Jiang Jiding introduced that Zheng Bianluo will focus on the construction of 7 large areas .
Among them: Zhengzhou focuses on the construction of the Zhongmu International Cultural and Creative Industrial Park in the east, including Henan, Movie Town, Fantawild, etc.; the Xinmi Yinji International Tourism Resort in the south, including the Animal Kingdom, Water World, Ice and Snow World, etc.; and the Dasong Mountain Culture in the west Tourist areas, including Shaolin Temple, Tiandizhong Building Complex, etc.; Huiji Cultural Tourism Area along the Yellow River in the north; Luoyang focuses on the construction of the Longmen Cultural Tourism Park, including Longmen Grottoes, Sui and Tang Luoyang and the Yellow River Xiaolangdi International Waterfront Tourism Resort; Kaifeng focuses on the construction The cultural tourism area of Songdu Ancient City includes Qingming Shanghe Garden and so on.
This article is original to Henan Commercial Daily, and the copyright belongs to Henan Commercial Daily.
may not be used in any way without the written authorization of Henan Commercial Daily.
includes reprinting, excerpting, copying or creating a mirror.
Henan Commercial Daily reserves the right to pursue legal liability against infringers.
